The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-12-03
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
ARTHUR LOCKWOOD, Esq.
CONCLUDED.
TRADE IN EARLY DAYS

TRADE IN EARLY DAYS
was mostly confined TO barter He shipped
flour 10 st. Louis, where 1t was exchanged
for sugar and molasses. The money was
chiefly of the wildcat" order, and change
in the way of silver was exceedingly scarce
He was daily called upon by men and wo
MEN for quarter to redeem letter In
the postofiice, for "Uncle Sam" invariably
demanded the full postage In silver before
letter would be delivered, and writer's In
those days almost invariably made the rec
ipients Of their favofs pay the postage, and
Mr.. Lockwood rarely got his quarter back
Eggs in those days brought three cents per
dozen, In trade at that! Butter was from
five to ten cents per pound, In exchange
for goods only. No cash was paid for any
produce, to save for wheat, Prairie chick
ems dressed brought five cents each, and
quails three shillings per dozen In barter,
Venison brought three cents per pound for
tore quarters, five cents for hind quarters,
or three or three and one half cents all
around. Mr.. Lockwood frequently had as
many as 25 dressed deer on hand at time.
He frequently bought and sold 1900 dozen
of eggs In day for days together, which
were consumed by laborers on the canal.
Among the other business men at that
time we're Gersham Burr, Cushman &
Grialey, VIM. True, j. g. Nattinger, John
Marley, Walker u Hickling, G. L. Thomp.
son, whose drug store was where Mike
Formulas Is now. j. u G. Armour and
Sanger 81 Ryan were contractors on the
canal. N. b. Bristol was clerk for Burr.
The Fox River House was kept by Delano
d Leavens,- then, with perhaps the Lake
House in Chicago as an exception, the
largest, and Independent of that, the best
hotel In this State In the days of that
date. Joe Hall had a blacksmith shop
where Reed Bros. agricultural establish
ment is, Joe Holland gun shop where the
opera house, proper, stands and In front
stone dwelling house at the corner, subse
quently bought by julius Avery, Washing
ton Bushnell and Arthur Lockwood as com.
mittee Of and for the masonic fraternity
Thomas Basnett had dry goods store and
dealt mostly In English cloths, Perry H.
Smith kept the city hotel, Isaac Felch
was famous halter who made his own
hats, and one would last man a lifetime.
The first church Mr.. l.. attended here
was In an old school house which stood
where now Is Zimmerman's furniture store,
but he does not remember OF what de-
nomination, the name of the preacher, or
even the text. He thinks the school house
was occupied by several denominations al
ternately. Rev. G. w. Bassett preached In
the old brick structure, which was after.
wards torn down TO make way for the pres.
ent large Congregational church. Rev. Mr..
Whittlesey succeeded Mr. Bassett and
was then, and Mr.. Lockwood regards him
as still the finest general scholar In Ottawa.
The Rev. Chas. b. Kelly was here then
and built the brick church for the Episco.
pal folks, wherein Gay Il Son now make
road carts, and in which Mr.. Lockwood
held pew during all the time 1t was used
as place of worship. Michael Flick
kept butcher shop where the Clifton
hotel stands, and John buchanan had a
bakery and saloon next north of Mr.. Lock.
woods Office on Columbus street.
A TUssLE WITH AGUE.
There was a peculiar genius here In
those days, known as Tailor Smith, to dis.
tinguish him from the numerous other
members of the extensive Smith family
They called him Tailor" because that was
his trade, and Smith," as that was his
name. He was an amateur undertaken
and took special pride and pleasure In
neatly dressing corpse for the grave. lie
was Infatuated with his peculiar within of
making the dead look perfectly lovely and
would spend hours In neat and tasty decor.
atoms Of the body and coffin of the de-
ceased, and his accomplishments in this
direction brought him into notoriety and
frequent calls. Mr.. Lockwood was seized
with sgue,-regular fashioned shakes
freezing, thawing out, fever, burning
hot, wild and broken sleep, and then the
whose procession over and over again, till
hs had become pale and yellow shadow
Of his former self, and he believed life to